Well, it is here. ;-)

Parents with babies don’t get to go out on new year’s eve, and mothers of babies don’t get to stay awake till midnight, so I’ve been seeing in the new year alone – well, alone except for Jools Holland and his Hootenanny (a now-immovable fixture in the new year TV schedules).

Eddie “Knock on Wood” Floyd has still got it, y’know. Floyd, the septuagenarian who saw in the new year, knocked spots off the sexagenarian who saw out the old year: Sir Paul…

I’m also seeing in the new year with a pleasant glass of the bourbon that Joel bought me after our youngest was born in September. Cheers, Joel!

As for Rowan Williams: I used to be very “anti” him, but I’ve really come round to him. Alas, he’s the ABC who was left with the Anglican parcel when the music stopped, so he’ll be remembered as the incumbent who saw the Anglican Communion disintegrate around him. But I’m repeatedly struck by how he is clearly a spiritual leader of world significance, in contrast to his immediate predecessor.

As a spiritual figure, I think he’ll come to be seen as the most important ABC since William Temple. As a leader of the church in the “political” sense, he got thrown a hospital pass, and sadly that’s what he’ll be remembered for.